Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen has handed over a petition demanding that Afrikaans be declared an indigenous language at the offices of Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande in Pretoria.
Steenhuisen led a protest earlier on Tuesday together with shadow public service and administration minister Leon Schreiber.
The party said the demonstration was sparked by the recent release of the language policy framework for public higher education institutions, which excludes Afrikaans from the definition of indigenous languages.
It said this stood in contradiction with the recent Constitutional Court judgment, which ruled that Afrikaans be reinstated as a medium of instruction at University of South Africa.
Schreiber said the party would continue to fight for the protection of all indigenous languages: “We stand up against this hateful exclusion of Afrikaans from the definition of indigenous languages by handing over a petition signed by thousands of people and demanding that Nzimande correctly recognises Afrikaans as an indigenous language.”
This morning we held a public protest outside the office of Higher Education Minister to demand that Blade Nzimande and government immediately recognise Afrikaans as a fully-fledged indigenous South African language and not classify it as ‘foreign’.
Let’s protect Afrikaans! 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/wjSX48D5zD
— John Steenhuisen MP (@jsteenhuisen) October 12, 2021
DA Leader @jsteenhuisen hands over a petition to demand that Afrikaans is declared an indigenous language.
This follows the classification of Afrikaans as a “foreign” language in the Language Policy Framework for Higher Education Institutions.
Sign now📲 https://t.co/b1rUezHL1A pic.twitter.com/KDSfSfLVk9
— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) October 12, 2021
-EWN
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